HONG KONG, June 5 — Hong Kong police said four people were arrested yesterday on the 35th anniversary of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The finance hub and former British colony used to be the sole place on Chinese soil where public commemorations were allowed for people to mourn those killed in Beijing on June 4, 1989.

But an annual vigil, which previously drew tens of thousands with candles to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, has been banned since 2020 as Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong.

Authorities in March enacted a second security law, which has drawn sharp criticism from foreign governments over worries of further curbs to freedoms to Hong Kong.

A police statement released early Wednesday said that two men and two women were arrested on Tuesday around Causeway Bay, a shopping district where Victoria Park is located.

One of them was a 68-year-old woman who "was arrested over suspicion of ‘offences in connection with seditious intention’ under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance,” said the police statement, referring to the official name of Hong Kong’s new security law.

She had been "chanting slogans in public areas on Yee Wo Street... this afternoon,” it said.

The other three were arrested over suspicion of "attacking police”, "assaulting two security guards” and "disorderly conducts in public places”.

Earlier in the evening, scores of police were seen by AFP journalists stopping and searching people around Causeway Bay.

Some appeared to be taken away by the police.

The police statement said that besides the four arrested, five other people were removed "for investigation of disrupting public peace”.

They were released soon after. — AFP